Bank of America Travel Insurance: What’s Covered & What’s Missing
Key Takeaways
- Several Bank of America cards have travel insurance, including its Premium Rewards cards, Atmos Rewards Summit card, and all its business cards.
- Depending on the card, coverage may include trip cancellations and interruptions, lost and delayed luggage, medical evacuations, and rental car theft and damage.
- Bank of America travel insurance is not a replacement for comprehensive travel insurance. It doesn’t offer any Emergency Medical insurance, and its limits for Trip Cancellation, Interruption, and Medical Evacuation coverage are too low.
- If you are traveling internationally or need more Trip Cancellation coverage, supplemental travel insurance from Squaremouth can provide more complete protection.
Which Bank of America Cards Have Travel Insurance?
All Bank of America business cards and a handful of its premium travel cards offer travel insurance. You’ll find a wide range of protections, including Trip Cancellation insurance and Rental Car insurance, on the following cards:
- Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee)
- Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite credit card ($550 annual fee)
- Atmos Rewards Summit credit card ($395 annual fee)
- Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Mastercard credit card ($0 annual fee)
- Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard credit card ($0 annual fee)
- Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard credit card ($0 annual fee)
- Atmos Rewards Visa Signature Business Card ($70 annual fee)
- Platinum Plus Mastercard Business credit card ($0 annual fee)
- Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Mastercard secured credit card ($0 annual fee)
How Does Bank of America Trip Insurance Work?
Bank of America travel insurance is an automatic benefit on some Bank of America cards for cardholders who book a trip on their cards. Usually you have to make the entire purchase with your card, though some benefits allow for partial purchases. If a mishap occurs on your trip and it qualifies for coverage, you can submit a claim to get reimbursed for your expenses.
What Does Bank of America Travel Protection Cover?
Bank of America cards provide protection against a variety of common travel disruptions, including trip cancellations, interruptions, delays, lost luggage and rental car damage. Its highest-priced cards, the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite credit card and Atmos Rewards Summit credit card, offer the best coverage.
They include up to $75,000 in primary Rental Car insurance, which can reimburse you for theft or collision damage without requiring you to file a claim through your personal auto insurance first. They also provide up to $100,000 in Medical Evacuation coverage, which meets our recommended limits for a single traveler. And, they offer $1,000,000 in coverage for accidents on a common carrier like an airplane or a train.
| Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite credit card | Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card | Atmos Rewards Summit credit card | |
| Trip Cancellation & Interruption | $2,500/trip | $2,500/trip | $2,500/trip |
| Trip Delay | $500/ticket after 6-hour delay | $500/ticket after 12-hour delay | $500/ticket after 6-hour delay |
| Baggage Delay | $100/day up to 5 days after 6-hour delay | $100/day up to 5 days after 6-hour delay | $100/day up to 5 days after 6-hour delay |
| Lost Luggage | $3,000/trip | $3,000/trip | $3,000/trip |
| Emergency Medical | Not covered | Not covered | Not covered |
| Medical Evacuation | $100,000 | $15,000 | $100,000 |
| Travel Accident | $1,000,000 common carrier coverage | Not covered | $1,000,000 common carrier coverage |
| Rental Car Insurance | Primary coverage | Secondary coverage | Primary coverage |
| Travel and Emergency Assistance Services | Covered | Covered | Covered |
What Does Bank of America Travel Insurance Not Cover?
While Bank of America offers broad travel insurance coverage on its cards, it’s not a replacement for comprehensive travel insurance. Bank of America cards won’t cover you for:
- Expensive vacations: You’ll only get $2,500 worth of trip cancellation and interruption coverage, which is inadequate to cover most vacations.
- Medical emergencies: Bank of America doesn’t offer any coverage for medical expenses. This is a serious gap for international travel, where U.S. health insurance typically doesn’t apply.
- Pre-existing conditions: The policy excludes illnesses and injuries that occur within a 60-day window of purchasing your trip.
- Evacuations for multiple travelers: You’ll get up to $100,000 for emergency medical evacuations, which meets our recommendation for a single person, but isn’t sufficient for multiple people.
- Weather-related cancellations and interruptions: BOA covers cancellations and interruptions due to illness, injury and financial default, but there’s no coverage for weather-related emergencies like hurricanes and blizzards.
- Travel accidents outside a common carrier: The cards’ travel accident insurance only covers accidents on a common carrier like a cruise ship, airplane or train. There’s no coverage for accidents occurring on other parts of your trip.
- Cancelled or interrupted trips split between multiple cards: You must charge the full amount of your trip to your card for the cancellation and interruption insurance to apply.
- High-risk activities: The policy excludes many risky activities, including skydiving and scuba diving from its evacuation coverage.
Tip: Consider purchasing a medical-only travel insurance policy to supplement your Bank of America card’s travel insurance for an international trip if you don’t want to purchase comprehensive travel insurance. This will give you wider coverage for common concerns, including cancellations, medical emergencies, delays, luggage and rental car damage.
How Does Bank of America Credit Card Travel Protection Compare To Other Top Credit Cards?
The Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite and Atmos Rewards Summit cards provide several travel insurance benefits that are competitive with the top credit cards for travel insurance: the American Express Platinum card and the Chase Sapphire cards.
Bank of America offers similar coverage for:
- Trip delays
- Baggage delays
- Lost luggage
- Primary car rental insurance (up to $75,000)
The biggest drawback is Bank of America’s Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverage. The Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum both offer up to $25,000 worth of coverage, while Bank of America caps its coverage at $2,500. This makes Bank of America cards less ideal for insuring major trips than Chase and Amex.
Bank of America Travel Insurance vs. Comprehensive Travel Insurance
Bank of America travel credit card insurance offers adequate coverage for some types of disruptions, but it has major gaps compared to comprehensive travel insurance.
For example, in comparison to Tin Leg Gold, our most popular travel insurance policy, the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite offers average or better-than-average coverage for:
- Trip delays: Bank of America offers the same amount of coverage as Tin Leg for the same 6-hour duration.
- Lost and delayed baggage: Bank of America offers superior baggage insurance than Tin Leg, with higher limits and a much shorter delay requirement.
- Travel accident insurance: Tin Leg only offers $10,000 per person for travel accidents, while Bank of America offers up to $1,000,000 in coverage. That said, BOA only covers common carrier accidents, while Tin Leg covers your full trip.
Bank of America falls short on:
- Pre-existing conditions: Tin Leg will waive pre-existing conditions if you purchase your policy within 14 days of your initial deposit. Bank of America won’t.
- Emergency medical: Tin Leg offers up to $500,000 per person for medical emergencies, while Bank of America doesn’t cover this at all.
- Trip cancellation: Tin Leg offers up to $50,000 per person and up to $100,000 to cover you for a wide variety of cancellation and interruption reasons, while Bank of America only offers $2,500 for a very narrow set of qualifying reasons.
- Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) coverage: Tin Leg allows you to add CFAR coverage if you need the flexibility to cancel your trip for any reason. Bank of America doesn’t have this option.
| Tin Leg Gold | Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite credit card | |
| Pre-existing Condition Waiver | Yes If purchased within 14 days of initial deposit | No |
| Emergency Medical | Full coverage $500k/person, primary coverage | No coverage |
| Medical Evacuation | Full coverage $500k/person | Partial coverage $100,000/trip |
| Trip Cancellation | Full coverage $50k/person, $100k limit | Partial coverage $2,500/trip |
| Trip Interruption | Full coverage 150% of unused trip costs | Partial coverage $2,500/trip |
| Trip Delay | Full coverage $500/person after 6-hour delay | Full coverage $500/ticket after 6-hour delay |
| Lost Luggage | Full coverage $500/person | Full coverage $3,000/trip |
| Baggage Delay | Full coverage $200/person after 24-hour delay | Full coverage $100/day up to 5 days after 6-hour delay |
| 24-Hour Travel Accident | Partial coverage $10,000/person | Partial coverage $1,000,000 common carrier coverage (no 24/7 coverage) |
| Cancel For Any Reason upgrade | Full coverage 75% of prepaid, non-refundable trip costs | No coverage |
How Hard Is It to File a Claim With Bank of America Travel Insurance?
Cardholders have mixed experiences filing insurance claims with Bank of America, with some reporting an easy claims experience and others reporting many difficulties.
Bank of America travel insurance is administered by Card Claims Center, which has a 4.5 Trustpilot Rating. About half of reviewers offer 5-star reviews, stating that their claims were quickly settled and that customer service was very helpful and responsive. A nearly equal amount of reviewers give 1-star reviews, with complaints of slow turnaround times, requests to submit documents repeatedly, and unclear communication.
Many users, especially those submitting car rental claims, note that their claims took less than three weeks to process. However, there are also reports of claims taking six months or longer to reach a resolution, especially more complex ones.
Note, difficulties with claim submission often stem from not understanding the policy terms and missing documents. For a smoother claims process, make sure to read your policy carefully, document everything, and have all the required documents in order when you submit your claim.
Learn more: How to Claim Travel Insurance
Is Bank of America Travel Insurance Enough?
Bank of America travel insurance may be enough for a low-cost domestic trip. However, for more substantial trips, you’ll need to purchase additional travel insurance to be fully covered.
Consider purchasing supplemental travel insurance if:
- Your trip costs more than $2,500.
- You’re flying or cruising internationally.
- You have a pre-existing condition.
- You need CFAR coverage to have more flexibility to cancel your trip.
- You need coverage for adventure sports like scuba diving.
FAQs: Bank of America Credit Card Trip Insurance
Can I Get Medical Travel Insurance Through Bank of America?
Bank of America can cover costs for medical evacuations and travel accidents on a common carrier, but it won’t cover medical treatments or hospital expenses. This is the biggest gap when comparing travel credit cards to comprehensive policies. In order to get full medical coverage, you’ll need to purchase a Travel Medical Policy to supplement your card’s travel insurance.
Do Bank of America Credit Cards Cover Car Rental Insurance?
Yes, several Bank of America cards offer car rental insurance, including the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite, Bank of America Premium Rewards, and the Atmos Rewards Summit card. The Premium Rewards Elite and Atmos cards both have primary Car Rental insurance, which means you can get reimbursed for theft or damage to a rental car without having to submit a claim through your personal car insurance first.
Do I Need to Book Travel Entirely on My Bank of America Card to Get Travel Insurance?
It depends on the type of coverage. You’ll need to book the full amount of your trip to your card to qualify for trip cancellation and interruption coverage. However, you can qualify for other benefits like baggage insurance and medical evacuation coverage with just a partial payment.
Do I Get Travel Insurance if I Book a Trip with Bank of America Points Instead of Cash?
Yes, you can get Bank of America travel insurance for a trip booked with points or miles, provided those points and miles are associated with your card. The card will reimburse you for non-refundable expenses, including a cash refund for the Bank of America points used to book your trip (note, Atmos miles are 100% refundable in any case). You’ll also have access to other protections, including baggage, Travel Accident, Car Rental and Medical Evacuation insurance.